Legal Ethics
Defense Seeks Gag on Duke Plaintiffs’ Website in ‘06 Lacrosse Team Case
Posted Apr 15, 2008, 10:32 am CST
By Martha Neil
An Internet site about a federal lawsuit that 38 Duke University men's lacrosse team players on the 2006 team filed against the school and the city of Durham, N.C., has become the focus of the litigation, as the defense seeks a gag order requiring it to be taken down.
The defense contends that the Duke Lawsuit site, which concerns a damages claim by the players over an investigation of false accusations of rape made against three former teammates in 2006, unfairly prejudices their case and, at least potentially, violates legal ethics rules, according to a local television station, WRAL, and the Winston-Salem Journal. The website is also discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post.
As discussed in other ABAJournal.com posts, the North Carolina attorney general determined that the three players initially charged with rape had been falsely accused, and the case resulted in the disbarment and eventual bankruptcy of prosecutor Mike Nifong. In addition to the team lawsuit at issue in the gag order request, a separate federal suit was filed by the three accused players.